The long-term influence of effective first-grade teachers on their students was examined in this study. Subjects were about 200 students enrolled in the classes of nine first-grade teachers in 1974-1975. During that year and each of the four succeeding years, the students were administered SRA achievement tests in the fall and in the spring. One first-grade teacher (teacher #8) was identified as especially effective because of the superior achievement gains of her students in the spring of the first year. Two analytical procedures were used to examine whether or not a subsample of 14 students of teacher #8 would continue to demonstrate superior achievements in comparison with matched subsamples from the other classes. The results indicate that the students of the effective first-grade teacher not only failed to continue their superior performance in subsequent elementary grades but performed worse than the students of the other eight first-grade teachers. Several possible explanations for this unexpected result are offered. (Author/JA)